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 All traders have bad days.Some days you will get stopped out. They are inevitable. “How can you be so stupid? You call yourself a trader? You ought to stop that. It is not possible that anyone could be worse at their job than you.” Traders are great at really beating themselves up. After one of my favorite athletes, Phil Mickelson, blew a chance to win at Winged Foot by overcooking his driver on 18, he said in the press room afterward, “I’m such an idiot. I can’t believe I did that.” I knew exactly how he felt. This is the raw emotion right after combat. But then you have to move on. You must take some time, let go of these feelings, and start to work on getting better. And when you gain maturity as a trader, you will learn the importance of seeing your failure as an opportunity to learn. What can you do starting right now to get better? How do you eliminate your mistakes from today? Every rip can make you a better trader. Embrace these tough days as a learning experience. Thank t...

 Those who can give trading more time when they start have a better chance to succeed. you must be patient. But your time will come. At the start of your trading, you should trade with small size and with one stock. You should not increase your tier size until you are positive 7/10 trading days. You should set a small max loss when you begin. You should be limited in your buying power. For example, when a new trader begins, he should not write more than 10k shares in a day, total. you are not going to be a great trader on Day One Gladwell explains, “Working hard is what really successful people do.” t deep practice, often with continuous feedback, is necessary to become great. Concentrated practice is key Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. If you want to be good at something, practice. Practice deliberately, and do so for many years. FOCUS ON IMPROVING EVERY DAY “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of man to elevate his l...

What is important for you (pause here... . and now the accentuation) to succeed as a prop trader?   Work together in a group to fill in this blank pyramid. Failing is not an option.  FIRST, BE UNORIGINAL As you progress, you will get better at the plays that you are taught or learn. You will learn to trade with more size incrementally. You may stumble across a new play here and there. But almost all of the money that you make as a new trader should be from statistically measured, basic trading plays. Think of it as the first few pages of a high school football playbook, basics up front, advanced stuff later on. Master the basic trades first. talent absent hard work and good listening skills is not rewarded by the market. If you pretend to know what you are doing when you start, you will quickly just prove that you don’t. You need reps. Experience will be the cure. There is only one outcome for those who pretend they know what they are doing. And that result is not a long-term ...

 No. But a prop firm can tell who has a poor chance to become a CPT. To be good at anything will take everything you have. Not having developed the skills to work hard is a turn-off. Trading is a skill learned by doing, not just by reading a lot, theorizing, or the faux art of “paper trading.” THE PROS AND CONS OF RECRUITING EXPERIENCED TRADERS Loyalty is a good thing to a point, but it cannot trump logistics and reality. losing money should really bother you. If I am negative three days in a row, I spend a long evening on my couch with a bottle of red wine and comfort food. As traders, we can all recite the memorable line from Wall Street: “A man looks in the abyss, there is nothing staring back at him. At that moment he discovers his character. That keeps the man out of the abyss.”  Traders don’t talk about how they want to trade, what they want to read about trading, or how they wish they could talk about trading. Traders trade, read about trading, and talk about trading.

  Becoming One of the Chosen Few Contrary to popular belief, trading is a craft. Like an artisan who develops a craft over a lifetime, it requires a discipline to be exercised daily. Just to get started, it takes 10 hours of work every day for months and maybe years to become a consistently profitable trader (CPT). Becoming a CPT is like joining an exclusive country club: they do not let everyone in and you must follow all of the rules or else your membership will be terminated. Few are willing to pay the price required to join our club of successful proprietary traders. There are many people who presently do not have the personal skills, which help develop the trading skills, to become a CPT. Or more accurately, many do not offer a good risk/reward to a prop firm that they can develop into a CPT. Possessing certain characteristics shortens your learning curve and improves your chances of success. Simply put, there is often a disconnect between those who believe they can trade and ...

 “Rome was not made in one day.” —French Proverb Learn to judge your trades based on how closely you followed your trading fundamentals. The following is a trade that MoneyMaker made in August 2009 in AIG and judged by the seven fundamental principles. (See figure 2.1). Your goal every day should be to make One Good Trade, and then One Good Trade, and then One Good Trade. Proper preparation : AIG had a strong move from 34 to 37 on heavy volume in the last 30 minutes of the Close the prior day. The next day, AIG gapped up above the high from the prior day on news that AIG’s founder would work with the current CEO to help rescue the company. Levels: Res: 41.50, 42.25. Sup: 40 Average Volume: 38m Short % of float: 20% 52-week range: 6.60–99.20 Hard work : On the Open, the stock consolidated in a range between 40 and 41.50. AIG began to consolidate around 10:45 AM in a tighter range close to 41.50. I noticed, however, that the stock could not hold above 41.50. When 41.50 finally s...